Confession of a Blogger

Initial days of blogging is always full of many mistakes, and we learn from it. Today, I’m writing this article to make a confession. A silly mistake which I made unintentionally, and wanted to confess here to get myself out of self-guilt.

Before I start with my confession I would like to share one mistake that might hamper my reputation, but since my readers are my asset, so I prefer to confess, rather then letting them to do same mistake which I made few years back.

And blogging is all about speaking the truth, and here I go with my first Blogging confession:

I created my first free BlogSpot blog back in 2007, when I was in final year of my college. That time, my only motto of blogging was to collect useful information from Web and put them on my blog for my own reference. That time I was a copy-paste blogger, who used to copy interesting article from different websites, (plagiarism) and that was the first mistake of my blogging journey.

Though, I have something to defend myself at the same time: Since, I was unaware of Adsense and how Bloggers make money, I never monetized my site. Though, I’m sure it might hurt ranking of few pages of other Bloggers, but it was an innocent mistake which I was doing unknowingly.

I got to know about my mistake, when I got a mail from one of the blog admin, Nirmal from Life Rocks, he was not offended, he sincerely asked me to remove the posts which I copied from his site ( I deleted complete blog later), but only one word in his mail made me to confess today is that “You are stealing the post“.

Yes I was stealing posts that time, but I was not monetizing it, I did it to share knowledge with all, whatever I find appropriate for me and for others but my approach was very wrong.

And now I can proudly say that each and every post of ShoutMeLoud is my creation, in every post I have given my best. I’m learning from my mistake so in case of any ambiguity do let me know but now its time for me to confess the sin which I did:

I confess that I made a crime by stealing other content though being a newbie blogger, I had no idea about copied content is not legal and I was doing it to share knowledge and not to make money.

Story started with my first blog on BlogSpot where I used to copy, technology related posts from other blog. I used to copy certain posts which I found useful and thought other would also like to read. I was a newbie blogger and that time I had no idea about RSS, traffic or monetization of blog.

Friends this post is for all who are still into copying stuff or stealing ideas, (Plagiarism ). Stop doing it now! Else one day you might say sorry for the things you doing now.

Your brain is your workshop, think of something which is original or present idea in a way that no one ever thought of presenting in that way. If you like creating an archive of best and interesting posts from web, a good idea is to use Social bookmarking sites like delicious, Stumbleupon.

Today I’m at a stage that I earn handsomely good sum of $ every month because of blogging and I needed to make this confession before I spend a single penny from that money.

Guys create your own identity by writing something that will make you feel great. This will also help your blog to grow and create a brand of yours. If you are unaware of other common mistakes, I recommend you to read following articles:

Its really brave of you to get up and confess about your mistake here. Well this is life; if we get everything right then at the end of the day we might get feeling that what we are doing is best. It better to make mistakes, learn from them, move on and then let other know about your mistakes and help them learn without them committing it.

Hi Harsh,
You have openly discussed about the mistake which lots of the new bloggers do at initial stage, including me. Unless and until we create our own content there is no point in expecting readers for it. Thanks for the post !!!

Hi Harsh
I m a newbie blogger. Most of my post are copied from others, but believe me I never knew that it effects other bloggers.Your post has made me realized that i m doing the same mistake on my blog.. and i had never heard the word “plgarism” before i read this post. Really sorry if by any chance if i had copied something from your site. with this post you really won my heart. i ll remove all the post which i have directly pasted from other sites, and ll try to write myself with all the experience ,knowledge and reference i got so far in this blogging world. (good luck for my journey to success)
Thank you for making me realize that i m doing wrong.

That was a sweet post harsh and must say that you selected the right time confess your mistakes. I mean you admitted your mistakes when you are a big name in blogging and so people are curious to know that what mistakes Harsh Agarwal made in his blogging career.
Smart Move as always.

kewl post..actually i still steal some* of content,but i post in a way that search engine don’t punish me.U can say im spreading* rather than copying :) .But it gives great inner satisfaction when you post a entire new idea.

Harsh see the difference between that days and now. Now you are really a successful blogger. It needs courage to apologize for your faults and you did it. Its all your hard work now that is visible on your blog :)

This post shows why you’ve been so successful after realising your mistake! Everyone makes mistakes, most realize it at some point, but very few actually admit it.
Now that you’ve lightened up your mind, I’m sure you’ll even be more successful at what you’re doing. All the best!

I am really overwhelmed at this Post… Its too great … and So much Motivating…I am Simply Moved coz I remember I used to blog at Technotrix where I only Used to Copy Posts , even in realtrix.. there are a few Posts which are copied. So after reading this post… I really feel a difference in Me…

People make mistakes all the time.No one in this world is perfect.I am amazed by the way you post articles..I Mean 150+ articles in 2 months is really great.If you can continue the same work it will hardly take another 6 months to make your blog really really popular.Wishing you all the Best.MNVAMSI

kewl post..actually i still steal some* of content,but i post in a way that search engine don’t punish me.U can say im spreading* rather than copying :).But it gives great inner satisfaction when you post a entire new idea..

Just read your post and I think it is great that you admit you made a mistake and did something you shouldn’t have. Now you can move on and produce quality content that is your own and be proud that it is your own work.